Dan Marino on Jim Harbaugh: "You know there’s that passion for the game of football. He obviously had it as a player, and has it as a coach.”

NEW ORLEANS — Jim Harbaugh is working on such a great second NFL career in just two years that it's easy to forget about his first. Even though he played in the league for a long time, it’s been nearly as long since he put on a uniform.

Consider the last pass he threw was in 2000, or the year Ray Lewis led Baltimore to victory in its only other Super Bowl appearance before this week against San Francisco.

So is Harbaugh, the 49ers head coach, already better than the former Bears, Colts, Ravens and Chargers quarterback? The reality is, what has made him successful in both ventures is one and the same.

At Super Bowl XLVII, it’s been no secret to Harbaugh that he will never be able to shake the label of “gutsy” on the field, now that he’s taken that mindset to the sidelines.

“Can you spread the word on that a little?” Harbaugh joked. “Can you get that out? Try not to keep it yourself. I appreciate it.”

Among Harbaugh’s contemporaries during his 14-year career (seven in each conference) from 1987-00 was Dan Marino. The Dolphins' Hall of Famer had physical gifts that few quarterbacks in any age rivaled and put up the prolific numbers to prove it. Even though Harbaugh never threw for either 20 touchdowns or 3,500 in a single season, he made up for what talent he lacked with his work ethic.

“He was a complete competitor,” said Marino, now an analyst for CBS’ NFL Today. “Maybe he wasn’t the All-Pro guy you would look at to turn your team around, but he’s a guy who would win. You had to play hard against him all the time, because he’s a guy would wouldn’t quit.”

Harbaugh was named to only one Pro Bowl—in 1995 with Indianapolis when he also was named the league’s comeback player of the year. Since the ride ended in 2000 with San Diego, Marino has great respect for how hard Harbaugh continued to work to remake his name as a coach, with strong stops at both the University of San Diego and Stanford before the landing the 49ers’ job.

“When he retired from the game, he worked himself up from college to get to this point,” Marino said. “Not many guys who spent 14 years in the league and had success as a quarterback would do that. You know there’s that passion for the game of football. He obviously had it as a player, and has it as a coach.”

There’s no doubt that 1995, when Harbaugh posted a career-high and league-leading 100.7 passer rating, was his best individual season. But “comeback” referred to more than just his resurgence as a player at age 32. During that season, he also carried and rallied the Colts to one play short of beating the Steelers in the AFC championship game. He just missed getting to Super Bowl XXX as a player.

“He threw the Hail Mary that, thank goodness, hit the ground to send us into our first Super Bowl,” said Bill Cowher, the winning coach of Pittsburgh’s 20-16 escape, now 17 Januarys ago. “But that Colts team, that year, he was the driving force. It was kind of a team that came from nowhere and they won games they weren’t supposed to win. Their team kind of took his lead, and they were scrapping to the very end.”

How close did it come? For a brief moment, after Harbaugh flung a 30-yard pass in the direction of wide receiver Aaron Bailey, it appeared “Captain Comeback” had his prayer answered. Then the ball slipped through Bailey to the end zone turf.

“I remember when that last ball was being thrown—I remember the look on his face—he thought it was caught,” Cowher said.

When you see some of the intense looks Harbaugh makes on the Niners’ sidelines now, it’s hard not to recall the iron-jawed Cowher, now Marino’s CBS colleague.

“I do love the fact the guy wears his emotions on his sleeve,” Cowher said. “It’s OK—the biggest thing is to make sure is that your players harness that—there’s a time and a place. He should be the one showing those emotions; the players are the ones playing.”

Cowher does see some of himself with Harbaugh’s approach to coaching. “I like his style. I can appreciate where he’s coming from.”

Harbaugh the coach wouldn’t exist without Harbaugh the player. Where’s he taken the Niners is just a continuation—and completion—of where he couldn’t quite take the Colts.

-- Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News. This article originally appeared on SportingNews.com